The chemical composition of snail gelatin

Abstract

A gelatin fraction isolated from the intact collagen of the body wall of Helix aspersa was submitted to chemical analysis. The analysis showed that the gelatin contains a high proportion of glycyl and hydroxyprolyl residues. The proportion of hydroxyproline is similar to that of proline. There are also a number of hydroxylysyl residues present. The amino acid composition of snail gelatin resembles vertebrate gelatins more closely than the invertebrate gelatins previously studied. The remainder of the gelatin is polysac-charide and yields galactose and smaller amounts of pentose and hexo-samines on hydrolysis.